Is this the most depressing United summer ever? (In your memory)

[KM]

The Moyes pre season was worse. Fergie gone, no transfer signings and the preseason results were average considering the opposition. How can some of you have such short memories?

The three amigos Herrera thing typified United that season.

 

[The Cat]

Moyes' summer was way worse.

We've not even passed the deadline yet ffs.

 

[ZlatMan]

A awful lot of moaning on this place . Mourinho haters will latch on any bad result even in pre season to make him look bad. Those same moaners saying we having a bad window need to take a good look at City and Chelsea with only one signing a piece. We made two signings with Fred and Dalot with Fred already going up to speed with the team. The reason for lack of activity is quite frankly the board reluctant to give Mourinho that push to get to City's level. They had no problem giving LVG unlimited support when the aim is Champions League football which led to a huge pool of mediocrity in the squad, mediocrity we still unable to get rid off.

You moaners whining about "bad result" have no idea about the meaningless of pre-season. Remember the summer when Michael Carrick was our only signing? That year we ended our league drought and win the league and European double the next year. I'm sure when the season gets going, we'll be in the top 3 and deep involved in the cup competitions.

Then you moaners will see how silly you look

 

[mancan92]

It's depressing because can you imagine any top quality attacking player actually wanting to join us? If they have watched us play there is no way they would want to.

 

[Luffy]

The summer of the Moyes appointment was worse for me. I honestly thought it was a joke when I read the news that he'd joined. This season, while I still feel that an implosion might be a possibility, albeit a remote one, I am rather expecting us to be much closer to City than we were last year, which admittedly would be nothing to gloat about, especially if we play the same insipid brand of football this season too. The depressing part about this season is that I am almost 100% sure that we will not win the league. Having said that, I'm pretty confident that we won't plummet to our worst league position that we have seen for a long time, as I was when Moyes was appointed. Which is why summer 2013 wins this one hands-down in my book.

 

[Tiber]

The Moyes year was grim, but atleast we targeted a few decent players. This year, aside from a half hearted look at Bale, we havent even been linked with enough talent to close the gap.

He fecked it up, but Moyes wanted Bale, Kross, Thiago etc. This year we had low expectations and still fecked up

 

[meamth]

Remember 2006/2007 summer? This is very similar. We signed a single midfielder that is Carrick and then stormed the season.

 

[Brwned]

I wrote this thread almost a decade ago after a season of complaints despite reaching the CL final and winning the league - the level of complaining really doesn't have much to do with the reality of the situation. That said I do think this place has gotten steadily more negative over time.

I find the "depression" and anger on here really odd personally. I find it really hard to believe people talk about these things the same way in real life. Maybe forums just attract that kind of person? If not, then either people come on here to vent so they can act normal in real life, or the internet really changes people. I've always assumed it's the former, and most people don't realise venting isn't helpful or therapeutic or whatever.

 

[Ashley R1+O]

What winners? Fletcher, perhaps? Even then he wasn't good enough anymore. Nani was busted here and it was sadly a long time coming. Hernandez was and still is fairly shite (his cult-like followers will no doubt disagree, albeit there's a reason Madrid didn't buy him and now he can't get a kick at West Ham). Rafael, I loved, but he wasn't exactly a 'serial winner', in spite of his passion for the club.

What do you mean, what winners? All of them that had won trophies that LVG bummed out of the club for literally no reason. Then farcically replacing them with youngsters who had played a handful of senior games when you bundled them all together.

Fletcher, Evans, Cleverley, Van Persie, Lindegard, Hernandez and so on and so on. Literally gutting the entire stable leadership group out of the club in one transfer window. Leaving Mourinho with in the farcical position of having to bin off players like Powell, Wil Keane, McNair etc etc.

I mean, it is nice that we've begun to rebuild by signing some big hitters like Pogba, Sanchez, Matic, Lukaku who might soon grow into some semblance of a leadership core. But the place was absolutely void of leadership when Jose took over. I have absolutley no idea how you instill the leadership down on this group of players who are mostly overpaid and comfortable in their role at the club and able to switch off when we lose and go crying to their social media telling their fans it will be alright, only to have them turn around and proclaim that Jose is the problem.

There is definitely more than meets the eye here.

 

[Crustanoid]

Not everyone will remember this, but...

In the summer of 1985, there was a big argument over the TV rights for football. You can read more about this here:

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport...e-big-yin-knew-who-mcavennie-was-2052962.html

This meant that none of the first four months of matches were televised. The broadcasting of football wasn't as ubiquitous back then, but there were still regular live games on Sundays, and highlights were commonplace.

United won their first ten league games that season, and to this day most of the goals from these games have only been seen by the people who attended the matches (which is quite refreshing, actually). After 15 matches, United had 41 points, having won 13 and drawn 2.

Eventually, the TV argument was settled...at which point United collapsed, winning 9 drawing 8 and losing 10 of their remaining 27 fixtures, and ultimately finishing fourth, 12 points behind Liverpool.

The Scousers had won their 9th league title in 14 years, and in the same period they also won 6 major European trophies. They also did the double that season, and had already won the League Cup four times in the 1980s.

United hadn't won the league for nearly 20 years.

They were managed by Ron Atkinson, who was later revealed to be a massive racist.

1985 and 1986 must have been moderately depressing summers for United fans, I imagine.

The silver lining was that Internet forums had yet to be invented.

We were absolutely awful in the last part of the 80s. Literally mid-table and losing to all manner of mediocrity. But at least SAF was attempting to play ‘the United way ‘

 

[NoLogo]

For me it is. Mainly due to the reason that Mou is still the manager. My god we went from LvG to Mourinho, the two manager I despised most before they even joined our club as managers. I really, really hope we don't hire Rodgers next, this would be the nail in the coffin for me, that's for sure.

 

[Kostur]

The Moyes year was grim, but atleast we targeted a few decent players. This year, aside from a half hearted look at Bale, we havent even been linked with enough talent to close the gap.

He fecked it up, but Moyes wanted Bale, Kross, Thiago etc. This year we had low expectations and still fecked up

This post sums it up for me, the shit situation this place has found itself in.

This summer is worse because 'we targetted a few decent players' under Moyes. Amazing. This is literally 'I've been played like an idiot by the media but I liked it because the players were good'.

 

[Nick7]

Moyes the worst by far.

 

[Tiber]

This post sums it up for me, the shit situation this place has found itself.

This summer is worse because 'we targetted a few decent players' under Moyes. Amazing. This is literally 'I've been played like an idiot by the media but I liked it because the players were good'.

<3

Having no ambition at all and fecking up is worse than atleast trying to give yourself a chance and fecking up.

Moyes was a disaster. But Jose has spent this summer putting off potential players, attacking his own players in public, attacking his captain in public a week after making him captain and attacking his boss over and over again in public. Whatever the hell that is, its worse than a disaster.

Moyes tried and failed to make the team better. Jose has just sat in his pram lobbing toys at his own players.

 

[CM]

I wouldn't say it's depressing but it's definitely frustrating. There's enough talent in this squad for it to be an exciting season ahead but the lack of activity in the market, in addition to the really poor quality of football on show has sapped that excitement away.

 

[charlenefan]

This summer certainly looks like it'll be up there with Summer 2009 (Ronaldo left, Valencia, Owen and Obertan coming in) and Summer 2013 (the Moyes summer)

 

[Red_Ramirez]

The worst was 1995

Rumours of Fergie getting sacked and Eric moving to Inter combined with selling Ince, Hughes and Kanchelskis in the summer then losing 3-1 to Villa on the opening day indicated a nightmare season ahead.

Did not turn out too bad eh?

This for me. Also came on the back of us losing the league on the last day and losing the cup final to everton.

Obviously Appointing Moyes 2013 as well

 

[Giant Midget]

Been as negative as I can remember, and I started following midway through 06/07. I was actually quietly optimistic when Moyes first come. I thought he'd modernize us a bit, get us to press more and make the players fitter. There were reports that during preseason, Anderson was being put through a special training regimen to bring his fitness up and I thought we were on the right track. Combine that with the big names we were linked with and I was buzzing.

All fell apart in a few months though lol.

 

[Jeffthered]

Easily. I am old enough to remember many pre-season preps... This is a Mourinho influenced drama, where he is making excuses before the season commences. How is that a Man United mentality?

 

[Beagle]

We had some pretty bad/uneventful transfer windows under Fergie. But you always knew he would find a way to compete for the league with the players he had. During his time the main complaint was not addressing our midfield which hindered us in Europe many times.

This time the mood is probably the worst. Because we know we play shit football and will most likely continue to do so. Even when we signed Fellaini we at least had a league winning team. And Moyes was Fergie's choice so we felt hopeful he knew what he was doing.

 

[Henrik Larsson]

I wrote this thread almost a decade ago after a season of complaints despite reaching the CL final and winning the league - the level of complaining really doesn't have much to do with the reality of the situation. That said I do think this place has gotten steadily more negative over time.

I find the "depression" and anger on here really odd personally. I find it really hard to believe people talk about these things the same way in real life. Maybe forums just attract that kind of person? If not, then either people come on here to vent so they can act normal in real life, or the internet really changes people. I've always assumed it's the former, and most people don't realise venting isn't helpful or therapeutic or whatever.

That's quite interesting to be honest, I genuinely thought venting or throwing it all out would have a mildy positive effect at least. At the same time I guess this place serves as a good and clear example of why it probably isn't

 

[Minimalist]

I can honestly say, hand on heart, that the pre-season under Moyes had more excitement about it. (and I fcuking hate Moyes)

It is definitely the worst pre-season since Ferguson retired - no question about it. Both from a performance level and our manager being a negative bastard.

 

[sincher]

No proper club football is played in the summer.

 

[Canagel]

Yes.

 

[Castia]

No chance the Moyes summer was 10+ worse. We ended up signing Fellaini for more money than his recently expired buyout clause it was a shambles.

 

[r3idy]

You don’t remember us appointing Moyes and signing Fellaini on deadline day do you?

This

Or the summer we signed Bosnich. That was a stinker

 

[Minimalist]

Agreed, Van Gaal was an absolute horror show and will take some beating for rock bottom. Have no idea what it was like back then but eeeeeeeeeesh, people trying the old "worst football they've ever seen" at the moment. Not a hope in hell is this as bad as Van Gaal.



LVG literally binned a whole bunch of our serial winners for absolutely no reason. Gutted the lifeblood of SAF's winning legacy out of the club. Imagine if Jose had started his first year with Chicharito/Nani and Rafael still at the club. They aren't the glory signings, but they're serial winning squad filler that we binned off for a bunch of green teenagers, some of which just got stomped out of the club instantly last year because they weren't good enough.

LVG was a complete and utter disaster for the club.

Did he?

Narrator: No he didn't.

He sold Hernandez, Welbeck, Kagawa, loaned Nani, while letting Evra, Anderson and Fletcher go. The only fecking player of any worth in that list (at that time) is Evra and he wanted to go.

Rio pretty much retired to QPR, Giggs legit retired obviously and Vidic already decided to leave.

There's plenty you can chuck at LVG and his incomings weren't great but I still think his cutting of dead-wood was very much welcome. But then, people still moan about selling Welbeck so go figure.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

It's depressing because can you imagine any top quality attacking player actually wanting to join us? If they have watched us play there is no way they would want to.

That is the thing starting to dawn on me. That yes people will join us, pick up their money happily and we will be going nowhere. I am getting really worried that we are no longer challenger but are joining the also-rans. Something really needs changing, just not sure what? The manager, can we trust them to replace him with the right person? Should we have a DOF? The owners? Are they just happy with the way things are? The team doing just enough, the stadium starting to look shabby while others are improving theirs (we are carry on as a bit of a tourist attraction of how stadiums used to be). We are making millions in sponsorship deals so owners licking their lips at that. Although we have a lot of sponsors are they top notch?

I am seriously starting to think that Jose has lost the drive he had earlier in his career.

Maybe it is just that Monday feeling?

 

[buchansleftleg]

The worst was 1995

Rumours of Fergie getting sacked and Eric moving to Inter combined with selling Ince, Hughes and Kanchelskis in the summer then losing 3-1 to Villa on the opening day indicated a nightmare season ahead.

Did not turn out too bad eh?

As others have stated. this was the worst for me. It felt like the wheels were coming off.

Lose the league because we missed Cantona's presence following kung fu kick.
Lose the FA cup to Everton
Actually losing Ince, Kanchelskis and Hughes, with Eric effectively resigning on 6th August as he was so fed up with the terms of his ban. (thankfully he reconsidered)
No New players brought in!
We'd failed again in Europe, hamstrung by the foreigner rule.
We'd sold a promising talent in Gillespie in the January for Andy Cole who was yet to find his feet at the club, indeed some unfairly blamed him for not winning the league that year
We announced the invisible "Grey" kit that would go on to only be used in 5 games

Little did we know that sunshine was just around the corner!

 

[BluesJr]

This is worse than 2013 in terms of overall negativity, whether it has the same outcome remains to be seen.

There is a lot of rewritten history being put in here, the dire end to the window happened after we had already started the season, with a 0-4 win against Swansea, there was quite a bit of optimism going into the remaining fixtures and the end of the window.

 

[2cents]

What winners? Fletcher, perhaps? Even then he wasn't good enough anymore. Nani was busted here and it was sadly a long time coming. Hernandez was and still is fairly shite (his cult-like followers will no doubt disagree, albeit there's a reason Madrid didn't buy him and now he can't get a kick at West Ham). Rafael, I loved, but he wasn't exactly a 'serial winner', in spite of his passion for the club.

Van Gaal didn't work in the end, but your view isn't entirely accurate and I'm confident that our current brand of football is just as hopeless. Moreso when you consider that we now have a much better squad.

What do you mean, what winners? All of them that had won trophies that LVG bummed out of the club for literally no reason. Then farcically replacing them with youngsters who had played a handful of senior games when you bundled them all together.

Fletcher, Evans, Cleverley, Van Persie, Lindegard, Hernandez and so on and so on. Literally gutting the entire stable leadership group out of the club in one transfer window. Leaving Mourinho with in the farcical position of having to bin off players like Powell, Wil Keane, McNair etc etc.

I mean, it is nice that we've begun to rebuild by signing some big hitters like Pogba, Sanchez, Matic, Lukaku who might soon grow into some semblance of a leadership core. But the place was absolutely void of leadership when Jose took over. I have absolutley no idea how you instill the leadership down on this group of players who are mostly overpaid and comfortable in their role at the club and able to switch off when we lose and go crying to their social media telling their fans it will be alright, only to have them turn around and proclaim that Jose is the problem.

There is definitely more than meets the eye here.

No problem with LVG gutting that squad, it had run its course and was packed with mediocrity. The problem was that he went out and replaced them with utter dross so that Mourinho has had to do it all over again.

 

[AltiUn]

Selling Ronaldo and replacing him with Valencia and Owen (of players who would go straight into the first team) has to be worse than this window to be quite honest. The difference is we had won the league that season so the loss of Ronaldo was bittersweet more than simply bitter as it is this season.

Yep, about as depressing a summer we've ever had.

 

[mewnew11]

The muppets died a slow painful death.

 

[villain]

Is this the first summer since newbies have been able to post in the main threads?

Trying to see if there's a pattern.

 

[Alex1982]

Tbh I’m only negative when I read the comments on here.

I watched quite a few games last year and don’t see the negative football to the degree made out by some on here.

I also watched Liverpool quite a bit as my partners lad is a ‘Pool fan and didn’t see a huge gulf in the quality of football between the two teams. Certainly not to the extent that’s made out in a lot of posts.

For me, we finished 2nd. We’ve strengthened our midfield which needed it. We’ve got a young successor to Valencia. Shaw is being given another chance which, if (big if) he takes means we have that position nailed on. Lindelof has a good World Cup and looked good in pre season so him paired with Bailly or Smalling will give us a solid central defence.

Yes I do find Mourinho a bit negative when he talks to the press but everything I’ve read shows a very different side with the players. And who could blame him being disengaged with the media, they all twist words and make stuff up to sell papers anyway. I’d rather he be this way round than a negative sod with the players but all happy clappy with the press!

So yeah, for me, I’m still positive and looking forward to seeing how we do this season.

 

[Denis' cuff]

Ever?

Nope. ‘74 and half a dozen others and that’s just post-70s.... oh, you mean since Fergie.

Not looking great, though. Next few days will be telling and also depends on certain players’ attitudes.

 

[Leftback99]

What do you mean, what winners? All of them that had won trophies that LVG bummed out of the club for literally no reason. Then farcically replacing them with youngsters who had played a handful of senior games when you bundled them all together.

Fletcher, Evans, Cleverley, Van Persie, Lindegard, Hernandez and so on and so on. Literally gutting the entire stable leadership group out of the club in one transfer window. Leaving Mourinho with in the farcical position of having to bin off players like Powell, Wil Keane, McNair etc etc.

I mean, it is nice that we've begun to rebuild by signing some big hitters like Pogba, Sanchez, Matic, Lukaku who might soon grow into some semblance of a leadership core. But the place was absolutely void of leadership when Jose took over. I have absolutley no idea how you instill the leadership down on this group of players who are mostly overpaid and comfortable in their role at the club and able to switch off when we lose and go crying to their social media telling their fans it will be alright, only to have them turn around and proclaim that Jose is the problem.

There is definitely more than meets the eye here.

I agree, LVG is the main reason the squad is so poor. You could reverse every transfer decision he made and we'd be in no worse a state but with £300m to spend. Selling Rafael and replacing him with Darmian, Evans for Rojo and then selling Nani and Zaha for a combined £10m before complaining we had no pace and width stand out.

 

[Siorac]

Indeed. It's probably part of the reason why I personally think the "false dawn" problem is overstated - the more dawns the better. You have to enjoy the fun when it's there, whether that's a win in a derby match or a last minute equaliser against an also ran.

I think it's a lot harder to enjoy these things in the modern football climate when you support the richest club in the world. Seeing how money dominates football it's a little jarring that we are relegated to also rans with our financial resources.

When I was still a teenager I went to a lot of games of my local team. There I had no problem cheering for a last minute equaliser or a backs-to-the-wall win against some similarly shite team. Because that was as good as it was going to get for the team of a town of 65,000 people. But with Manchester United, it feels wrong. We have the biggest wage budget in the richest league in the world and yet we can't even look forward to half-decent football, let alone major trophies, in a football world that is increasingly becoming the playground of the financial elite.

 

[Jagga7]

The caf is becoming more and more divided.
Similar to USA...

Does that mean we'll end up with Alan Sugar as our manager??

 

[Denis' cuff]

We were absolutely awful in the last part of the 80s. Literally mid-table and losing to all manner of mediocrity. But at least SAF was attempting to play ‘the United way ‘

Tbf, I think Ron played the United way. Entertaining, but just a “good time Charlie” and way behind Liverpool in terms of consistency and not as successful as Fergie. Who was?

As for the post you responded to; No way Ron was a massive racist. Get a grip. He just made a fecking idiotic remark and he probably helped more black players to make top flight careers at WBA and United than anyone I can think of in his time.